Apple reportedly shutting down for-pay iOS beta access

DMCA notices are being sent to websites selling unused developer test slots.

It appears that Apple is getting more serious about putting the kibosh on unauthorized access to iOS betas. According to several unnamed website operators speaking to Macstories, a number of sites that purport to sell early developer access to iOS 6 have been shut down after the sites' ISPs received DMCA takedown notices from Apple.

Registered developers are able to add the Universal Device Identifier (UDID) of up to 100 iOS devices to their accounts in order to distribute software for testing. These registered devices can also install betas of iOS—such as the recent betas of the as-yet-unreleased iOS 6—though access is supposed to be limited to developer team members only.

However, as outlined recently by Wired, some unscrupulous developers have generated extra income by selling access to iOS betas. These developers do so by charging users to register their device's UDID into one of the developers unused 100 test slots. When such developers run out of empty slots, some have registered additional developer accounts.

The practice isn't new. In fact, we know firsthand of users who paid developers for early access to iOS 4 and 5 betas in previous years. Last year Apple cancelled the accounts of some developers discovered to be sharing access to iOS 5. This year, it appears that Apple is going one step further by having websites selling such access shut down by sending copyright infringement complaints to the sites' hosting providers.

The owner of one such site reported making $75,000 by selling access to the iOS 6 beta since June. "We do not believe our service was infringing and our services did not violate their guidelines for iOS 6," the site owner told Macstories. The owner plans to launch a new site "with better and more secure data lines to handle Apple," the person claimed.

Apple did not respond to our request for comment on the issue by publication time on Monday.